What Is a Samadhi?

A ‘samadhi’ in India means a public place of pilgrimage and worship for a diceased guru or statesman.

There has been so much talk recently about our samadhi in Pune that we wanted to investigate what the word ‘samadhi’ really means. (And this is not about the state of enlightenment…)

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A samadhi is a place commemorating the dead (similar to a mausoleum), which may or may not contain the body or the ashes of the deceased. “Samādhi sites are often built in this way to honour people regarded as saints or gurus in Hindu religious traditions, wherein such souls are said to have passed into mahā-samādhi, (or were already) in samādhi at the time of death,” as wiki states. Or, “It is a place where the physical presence of a yogi, avatar or great saint is anchored, typically the tomb where the physical body is buried,” according to Shivabalayogi‘s website.

There is an unwritten rule in India that any samadhi remains open to the public and that anyone can visit it, just coming off the street. On the website for Meher Baba’s samadhi near Ahmednagar in Maharastra there is even the need for a special mention to be in silence inside and around the samadhi.

Reading about samadhis there is often the mention of ‘place of pilgrimage’, a place where, as a devotee, we can go and pay our respects to our master.

The word ‘samadhi’ is also used for the mausoleums of politicians. Famous is the one of Mahatma Gandhi in Rajghat, frequently visited also by foreign dignitaries. B.R.Ambedkar’s is in Chaithrabhoomi and the one for Morarji Desai is in Abhayghat.

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The caption of first photo in the slideshow above has been worded according to an email sent out by Sadhana (spokesperson of the Osho Meditation Resort in Pune) which reads “Himanshu Kanakia plays flute in Osho Samadhi [sic] in the Monsoon Festival on August 12th, 7.30 am.”